The Truth About the Man Nobody Saw

The Truth About the Man Nobody Saw

A Eulogy to Severus Snape

The thunder growls outside and the intensity builds. The weather is perfect, as my father would say. Here I sit, in a large, old manor writing with all the passion in me. Why am I writing, you ask? I'm writing my father's eulogy.

My father was Severus S. Snape. The man everyone was afraid of. The man who was highly misunderstood. The man who went through so many pains and tragedies in his life. The man nobody saw.

I'm Marina Snape, better known as Mara Snape. I am eighteen years old. I graduated from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry last year. I am going to be working at Hogwarts, as the new Potions Mistress. It's a tough thing for me to do. After all, I do take after my father. He was a wonderful man, if you knew him. His students never understood him. I don't think anyone really did. Except for me. And maybe my Godfather, Lucius Malfoy.

My father's life was not an easy one, but then again nobody's life is. My father didn't believe in talking about his problems. His father, Caesar S. Snape, told him that talking about your problems was a weakness. He also told my father that crying was a weakness. As was love.

The abuse started young. My father was maybe three years old. It was something that he rarely talked about. He never showed any emotion about it either. But then again, emotion was also a weakness. The abuse is what started my father's downward spiral into a deep, dark depression that nobody could pull him out of.

If you are or were a student of my father's, the man you saw everyday in class is not the same man that I saw. He put on two different faces. He didn't choose to do this; he had no choice in the matter. After a while, it became second nature to him in some ways. He stopped seeing the difference. But I didn't. I knew who he was. I always did. To me, he was daddy. The man I could count on. The one person I could turn to if the need arise. He was everything to me. The only person I totally trusted. He probably was the only person I would ever trust.

As a child, he went through everyday wondering if it would be his last. The abuse became worse, and the emotional and verbally abuse started. Grandfather said it was for Father's own good. Own good? To beat the shit out of your son is for his well being? That's a new theory.

Through all of the abuse, my father managed to hold his head high. He had no choice in this. If he showed his pain, the abuse would grow worse than it already was.

When my father turned six years old, Grandfather started his Death eater training. You can never begin too soon, as Grandfather would say. This made the abuse more prone to happen and more frequent. Not only did Father have to deal with abuse from Grandfather, but also from his uncles and great uncles. They wanted him to be a Prime Death eater. At age six, you don't really know what you're going to do tomorrow, never mind with the rest of your life.

My father truly was a man of wonders. He went through so much in his life and never asked for one thing.

If there's one thing I can ask of you all, it would be to give my father respect and a small version of understanding of his life. After all, he's done so much for us all. He was not an asshole. He was not a jerk. He was not evil. He was highly misunderstood. My father, Severus S. Snape, deserves that much. May his soul rest in peace.

Truly,

Marina Antonetta Snape